I was Arrested for DUI in Georgia. What Now?

You likely know that crash victims can seek compensation for their injuries. But you may not know what that compensation can include. In Georgia, as most places, victims can seek compensation for their damages. The law says these damages may be “either general or special, direct or consequential.” The courts then interpret this by dividing these damages into three general categories. Depending on your circumstances, you may deserve compensation for one, two or all three types of damages. Economic damages Economic damages include all the concrete expenses you accrue as the result of your injury. These are things that are more easily measured: Medical treatment Physical therapy Lost wages Property damage, such as to your vehicle Home or car adjustments to accommodate any resulting disability As some of these items suggest, it’s important to consider any future expenses directly related to the crash. If a crash leaves you unable to work, your lost wages may not just be the past wages up until the time you file. They may also include the future wages you will be unable to earn. You might wonder if you can still claim medical expenses if your health insurance helped cover them. The answer is, “Yes.” However, it’s worth noting that if you receive compensation for your medical expenses, your insurance provider will likely file to get its money back. This is a process called subrogation, and a skilled attorney can typically negotiate with the insurance to reduce the amount they claim. Non-economic damages Whereas economic damages have reasonably clear price tags, non-economic damages are harder to measure. Even so, these damages often comprise the larger portion of your claim. This is part of the reason it’s important to work with an experienced personal injury attorney, rather than accepting an early settlement offer from the insurance. Insurance companies frequently undervalue non-economic damages: Pain and suffering Loss of companionship Loss of consortium Mental anguish Trauma Reduced quality of life As you can see, these are items that don’t come with an obvious price tag. Accordingly, Georgia says that you and your attorney can explain the value of these damages. The other party’s insurance is bound to argue for a lower value, so it’s important to understand how the courts view the evidence and how your case compares to other, similar cases. Punitive damages Punitive damages are rare, and they do not primarily aim at compensating crash victims. Instead, as Georgia’s laws note, punitive damages exist only in cases where “clear and convincing evidence” shows that the defendant acted out of “willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression,” or such gross negligence as to demonstrate a “conscious indifference to consequences.” Notably, the law says that these damages are intended solely to “punish, penalize, or deter” wrongful behaviors. It also caps the amount of punitive damages at $250,000, unless the case involved product liability, a specific intent to cause harm or the influence of certain drugs. What are these damages actually worth? By now, you can likely imagine how the full cost of a crash can exceed the insurance company’s settlement offer. Even if the offer looks large, it likely minimizes future economic damages, as well as your non-economic damages. If the crash owes to truly awful behavior, you may want to file for punitive damages. An insurance settlement will almost never anticipate those. As a result, the Insurance Research Council released a study in 2014 which found that crash victims who worked with an attorney recovered 3.5 times as much as victims who settled on their own. That’s the average, so some cases were more. Others were less. But the numbers help show the value of working with a seasoned attorney. Ultimately, getting the full extent of the compensation you deserve is a matter of understanding the different types of damages, understanding the law, understanding the values of similar cases and compiling the evidence in such a way as to make a clear and compelling argument. You may not need to go to trial to get the compensation you deserve, but you will need to do your homework ahead of any negotiations. If you have been injured in an accident, talk with the experienced lawyers at Davis, Chapman, and Wilder, LLC in Augusta, GA to bring a personal injury claim and obtain the compensation your family deserves.

Search and seizures on someone who is walking down on the street: When are they legal? Anyone who has been stopped by the police has had the same questions. What are the police allowed to do? Can they stop me for no reason? When they stop me, are they allowed to just search me however they want? Do I have any legal protections against illegal search and seizure? There are, in fact, strict limits as to what the police are allowed to do regarding street side stops, searches and seizures. If you have been stopped by the police while walking down the street, you need to know your rights and understand what the police can and can’t do. What is a search and seizure? As Americans, we have a right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. In general, for the police to stop someone and search them, or search someone’s property, etc., they need to have a search warrant. With a warrant, they can conduct a search that is limited to the scope of the warrant. But, of course, in most cases involving police stops and searches on pedestrians, the police are proceeding without warrants. Proceeding without a warrant: The reasonable suspicion requirement Although the police are supposed to have a warrant, there are situations in which it is legal for them to stop a search someone without a warrant. However, the police cannot stop you and search you for no reason. They need to have “reasonable suspicion” to justify the stop. The case that has dictated the police’s reasonable suspicion requirement is Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). In this case, the court determined that a police officer is justified in a warrantless stop and search is the officer has a reasonable belief that he or she, or the people around them, could be in danger from the person being stopped. In this circumstance, the police can conduct a reasonable stop and search to discover any weapons on the pedestrian’s person. Once the stop is made, the police officer cannot hold you indefinitely. The stop must be limited to a reasonable time to conduct the search that warranted the stop. This means that the police cannot search you for a minute, then hold you there for no reason for two hours after the search. Complications and exceptions There are numerous complications and exceptions when it comes to the legality of stops, searches and seizures. All these nuances will depend on the specific facts of your case. If you have been stopped and searched, an experienced lawyer can help you determine whether the police action was legal, and what remedies you have available. Why does this matter? The reason these limitations on police action are so important is this: A violation of these rules could destroy their case against you in court. The exclusionary rule The exclusionary rule is simple. If an officer obtains evidence as part of a search that violates the rights of the person searched, that evidence is excluded in court. Without adequate evidence, the prosecuting attorney cannot win the case, so, in most cases, the charges are dropped. Here’s a hypothetical example A pedestrian is walking down the street alone. She is not making any sudden movements or acting suspiciously in any way. An officer stops her, and he pats her down. In the pat down, the officer discovers a bag of marijuana. In the ensuing court case, the evidence of the marijuana in the pedestrian’s possession is excluded from the prosecutor’s evidence. Without this critical evidence, the prosecutor has nothing on which to base her case, and the defendant can go free. What you should do This is a simple example to illustrate how the exclusionary rule works in practice. If you have been stopped and searched and are facing charges, and you are facing criminal charges as a result, you need to get help to defend your rights. A good lawyer will be able to break down all the facts of the stop and the search to determine whether there is any evidence of a violation of your rights which could result in the charges against you being dropped.

As a Georgia resident, you are entitled to all of the protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment requires the states to uphold individuals’ constitutional rights, and this includes all rights that apply before, during, and after an arrest. If police violate your constitutional rights, then any evidence obtained as a result of the violation may be deemed inadmissible in court. Likewise, if state prosecutors violate your constitutional rights, this could mean that you are entitled to an acquittal without the need to defend yourself at trial. However, constitutional issues are rarely straightforward. Most police officers and prosecutors do their best to comply with the law, and this means that most constitutional violations are unintentional. Additionally, despite more than 200 years of precedent, there are still many grey areas when it comes to determining when an act or omission crosses the line into the unconstitutional territory. That said, asserting your constitutional protections can be an effective defense strategy in many circumstances. In this article, we countdown 10 of the key constitutional protections that apply in Georgia criminal cases, and then we discuss the potential consequences of constitutional violations for criminal defendants in Georgia. 10 Constitutional Protections that Apply in Georgia Criminal Cases 10. The Right to a Jury Trial As a criminal defendant, the Seventh Amendment guarantees you the right to a trial by a jury of your peers. While you can waive this right (although this is not something you should do unless advised by your attorney), neither the prosecutor’s office nor the court can deprive you of your right to a jury trial in a criminal case. 9. The Right to a Speedy Trial The Sixth Amendment provides several important protections to criminal defendants in Georgia, one of which is the right to a “speedy and public trial.” If you are unfairly prejudiced by a delay in your trial date (which requires a thorough analysis of the specific facts and circumstances involved with the delay), then you may be entitled to walk free. 8. The Protection Against Double Jeopardy Under the Fifth Amendment, you cannot be prosecuted twice for the same offense arising out of the same set of events. You can be forced to go through a second trial if the jury is unable to reach a decision or the judge orders a mistrial for other reasons; but, if you get acquitted, then your case should be over. 7. The Protection Against Ex Post Facto Laws If you do something and then Georgia makes it illegal, you cannot be prosecuted retroactively. This is known as the prohibition against ex post facto laws. 6. The Right to Know the Evidence Against You Another protection afforded by the Sixth Amendment is the right to know the evidence against you. Before your trial, you are entitled to conduct “discovery” in order to obtain information about the prosecution’s case. If the prosecutor’s office withholds any evidence (or subsequently obtains evidence and does not disclose it), this may constitute a violation of your Sixth Amendment rights. 5. The Right to Confront Witnesses The Sixth Amendment also entitles criminal defendants to confront any witnesses against them. This means that the prosecution cannot present police officers’ or other witnesses’ testimony unless you are afforded the opportunity to conduct a cross-examination. 4. The Requirement for “Reasonable Suspicion” Under the Fourth Amendment, the police cannot stop a person unless they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe that the person has been involved in criminal activity. There are some exceptions (including DUI checkpoints in Georgia); but, generally speaking, the police cannot stop people arbitrarily or on a discriminatory basis. 3. The Requirement for “Probable Cause” A stop is different from an arrest. While a stop requires “reasonable suspicion,” an arrest requires “probable cause.” If the police arrest you without probable cause (or if they conduct a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause requirement), they are in violation of your constitutional rights. 2. The Right to Remain Silent The Fifth Amendment affords you the right to remain silent once you have been accused of a crime. If the police or prosecutors violate your right to remain silent, then anything you say subsequent to the violation could be inadmissible in your Georgia criminal trial. 1. The Right to an Attorney Finally, and most importantly, you have the right to an attorney. This right exists under the Sixth Amendment, which states that, “the accused shall enjoy the right to . . . the assistance of counsel for his defense.”By hiring a defense attorney as soon as possible, you can ensure that you avoid costly mistakes and assert all of the defenses that are available to you under the U.S. Constitution and Georgia law. Can You Avoid a Conviction by Proving that Police or Prosecutors Violated Your Constitutional Rights? So, let’s get back to our original question: What happens if Georgia police or prosecutors violate your constitutional rights? While the specific circumstances of your case will determine what options you have available, the general rule is that evidence obtained in violation of a suspect’s or defendant’s constitutional protections is inadmissible in criminal court. If the violation did not result in the collection of evidence (i.e. if you were denied your right to a speedy trial or your right to know the evidence against you), then the violation could entitle you to have your case dismissed. Either way, in order to assert your rights, you will need to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney who can effectively argue your constitutional protections on your behalf. Speak with an Augusta, GA Criminal Defense Lawyer at Davis, Chapman, & Wilder, LLC Have you been charged with a crime in Georgia? Do you believe that the police or prosecutors may have violated your constitutional rights? To discuss your case with one of our experienced criminal lawyers, call our Augusta, GA law offices at 706-200-1578 or request a confidential consultation online today.